"In my work with organizations, I hear a recurring theme: People are exhausted by change. Over the past few years, companies have faced unrelenting transformation: hybrid work, digital transformation, and AI adoption. Each wave promises efficiency or a competitive edge, but together they can be exhausting. When employees hesitate, disengage, or slow adoption, leaders tend to blame "resistance." Yet what looks like resistance is often fatigue, overload, or distress, not defiance."
"Psychologically, resistance is the nervous system's way of signaling that something about this change feels unsafe or unclear. Resistance as a Signal Research on organizations reveals that resistance is less about the change itself and more about how the change is led, communicated, and experienced (Ford, Ford, & D'arnelio, 2008; Jones & Van de Ven, 2016). In a comprehensive review of how people resist change in organizations, Mikel-Hong et al. (2024) found that resistance manifests differently across the three key roles in organizations:"
"Strategists (senior leaders) often view resistance as a threat to their vision or legitimacy. Agents (middle managers) feel caught between executive expectations and frontline realities. Recipients (employees) interpret resistance as self-protection from uncertainty or loss. What leaders see as defiance often signals misalignment across these layers: a gap between what is intended and what is experienced. Earlier research by Roy Smollan (2011) identified three dimensions of resistance that offer diagnostic insight:"
Resistance functions as a signal of organizational pain rather than a problem to fix. Employees have become exhausted by consecutive transformations—hybrid work, digital transformation, and AI adoption—leading to fatigue, overload, and distress that masquerade as resistance. Psychological resistance reflects perceptions of unsafety or lack of clarity. Resistance often stems from how change is led, communicated, and experienced, and varies across strategists, agents, and recipients. Strategists may see threats to vision, agents feel caught between expectations and realities, and recipients protect themselves from uncertainty or loss. Diagnostic frameworks identify emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions to guide listening and targeted interventions.
Read at Psychology Today
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